Love Is In The Air: Create Your Own Heart-Shaped Bokeh

by Karen on Monday, February 13, 2012

Lately, the combination of a busy school schedule and my addiction to Instagram has resulted in serious camera-neglect. I've found little time and reason to take the ol' DSLR out. So when I saw this simple lens filter DIY, I jumped at the opportunity to play around and have fun– and just in time for Valentine's Day! You don't need to be a serious photographer to create heart-shaped bokeh. “Bokeh” is a photography term that essentially means blur. In photography– especially food photography– this blur creates an aesthetic quality by keeping the subject of your photo in crisp focus, while the background appears blurry. At night, lights that are out of focus create circles of color that give photos a magical and ethereal feel that I love. The circle is created by light coming into the lens and outlines the shape of the aperture. Manipulating this shape essentially involves creating a new (and slightly smaller) aperture with a custom shape, like a heart or whatever shape you desire.

So what exactly do you need to create this effect? First, you will need a prime lens with a large aperture, for example 1.8 or 2.0. A great lens to start with is a 50 mm prime lens. Unfortunately, I don't think this will work well on a point-and-shoot camera. I imagine the size of your heart-shaped hole would have to be teensy. Also, I have tried this on my zoom lens and it didn't work. If you look through the viewfinder, only to see a heart-shaped vignette, something has gone wrong. I have seen some people say that it worked on their zoom lens, but I'm unsure how they were able to, so if you happen to know please share! Second, you need thick black paper or cardboard. I used black paper since it was easier, but if you plan on using this filter a lot, invest in the cardboard. Third, you will need some mad math skills. Ok, maybe just a calculator. Because the size of the heart-shaped hole needs to fit within the aperture of your lens, you will need to figure out how large your aperture is in millimeters at its widest. (Don't forget, in creating a bokeh effect always set your aperture to its widest setting) The f-stop (i.e.: number of your aperture size, like f/1.8 or f/2.0) is just a ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture. So, in order to figure out the diameter of the apeture you just divide the focal length (e.g.: 50 mm) by the f-stop (e.g.: 2.0), which means the diameter of a 50 mm lens at an f-stop of 2.0 is 25 mm wide. A 100 mm lens at an f-stop of 2.0 is 50 mm wide.

Making sense so far?

Therefore, your heart-shaped hole must be slightly smaller than this diameter so that the camera captures the shape of the heart instead of the circle. So in my 50 mm lens, the shape of the heart measured slightly smaller than 25 mm.

The measurements do not need to be exactly precise, but get it as close as you can. I created these images with a 50 mm and 100 mm prime lens and both created amazing effects. Feel free to play around with whatever lens you have on hand, but a 50 mm lens is best. It is great not just for this project but is an all-around useful lens.

I know, my brain hurts from all this math too so let's get this thing going!

Using the inner rim of your sky light lens or protective lens, trace a circle on the black paper. Cut the circle out. This circle should sit flush and snuggly against your lens. Find the middle of the circle by lightly folding the circle in half. Open the paper and then fold it again so the fold lines meet at the middle of the circle. Measure out a square of how large your hole will be based on the above calculation. So for a 50 mm lens, my square was 25 mm by 25 mm in the center of the circle.

Draw a heart-shape and using a small pair of scissors cut out this hole. Place the paper up against your lens and cover with the sky light. And that's it!

Tips for shooting at night:

– Set your aperture to its widest setting 1.8, 2.0, 2.8…
– Increase your ISO depending on how much light is available.
– Use a tripod to help stabilize your images
– Turn off the auto-focus and manipulate the focus ring. Looking through the view finder, you'll see hearts appear before your very eyes!
– Get out! I wandered the streets of Los Angeles with my camera and discovered so many new and interesting details of the city by playing with this filter.

What an amazing technique! I would never have thought to do what you did, but it brings out the most amazing, romantic edge to your photos. Very impressive – thank you so much for sharing. I will be passing your blog around 😉 Share the love!

I tried this and all it did was reduce the subject to a heart shape, i.e. the photo was black aside from an area that was shaped like a heart. The lights didn’t change into heart shapes, the entire photo did. This isn’t helpful to get the look in the photos shown here.

Seems you did something wrong.. Everyone else was very happy with their results and it is quite rude of you to criticize this tutorial, because it was most likely your own fault. My suggestion is read and try it again, and if you still get the same results, ask a professional about your camera lens.
Regards,
Alex

i haven’t tried it yet, but love the idea! wondering, have you tried taking pictures with people in them, or just the skyline? i’m curious to know if it would work having a subject in the photo as well! it would be fun for engagement photos!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!! SOOOOOO excited to try this, I wanted one for this weekend and now I don’t even have to buy it!!!! Bless you beyond words for being kind enough to share!!!!

hello, its an amazing tutorial but I am having a hard time making it work… i have a 50mm lens an di did it on cardboard, but maybe my heart was too tiny, about 5 mm, but, idk, it just dowsnt work….
any extra help? please?

i would really like to know if I can do this with my Kodak Easyshare DX6490. I’m a beginner at taking pictures and adjusting the camera’s settings manually so I was wondering if you could please help me by looking up my camera and letting me know if it’s possible for me to do without using an additional lens if that makes any sense X} thanks for the amazing tutorial <3